As the tournament progresses into the later rounds and with quarter-finals places up for grabs, the team mates turned up today to cheer on their fellow country players.
The day started with mixed doubles, where the first and second seeds from New Zealand comfortably secured two wins to book their places in the quarter finals.
- Ryan Tong/Ella Smith (1st seeds) bt Guo Qiu/Gwen Mar 21-3 21-7
- Ryan Tong/Ella Smith (1st seeds) bt Daniel Hocking/Margaret Zhao 21-16 21-16
- Edward Lau/Shaunna Lu (2nd seeds) bt Julian Lee/Kai Qi Teoh (Australia) 21-9 21-14
- Edward Lau/Shaunna Lu (2nd seeds) bt Thomas Xuan and Ng Fiona Le of Australia 21-8 21-6
Guam’s Sarah Cai was partnered with Australia’s Ethan Chen for this event. Playing together for the very first time, the pair started off strong with a win against New Caledonia’s Nathan Nicole and Mariner Naveros 21-14 21-13. This set up a match against seventh seeds Ricky Tang and Majan Almazan of Australia, where the pair narrowly lost in three games 21-19 12-21 21-11:
“There wasn’t another male junior player to compete with in the mixed doubles so I was paired with t was nerve-racking to compete with Ethan. It was nerve-racking to begin with but as we started to communicate more, we played much better. It is a good feeling to have taken the seventh seeds to a third game” – Sarah Cai, Guam.
Nathan Nicole and Gabriel Vallette of New Caledonia also got off to a good start, with a 21-12 21-8 win against the Cook Island’s Danniel Daniel and Vaitoti Tupa 21-12 21-8, before bowing out with to Thomas Ng and Gavin Ong of Australia 21-10 21-19
“We’re happy to have won our match, but need to increase our speed and make less mistakes to compete with the players here. We are really gearing up for the team event where we hope to challenge for third place, so this is great practice!” – Nathan Nicole and Gabriel Vallette, New Caledonia.
With a huge entry to the VICTOR Oceania Badminton Championships 2019, we are delighted to see plenty of passionate and talented individuals taking part. Many of the young players are competing for the first or second time and they are embracing the experience to learn from the competition:
“This is my second time competing in the Oceania Championships. Today, we managed to win the first women’s doubles game but then came up against a strong Australian pair in the second round. I feel more motivated to train harder this year and I hope to come back in 2020 as a stronger player.” – Nina Smits, Tahiti.
The day’s competition came to a tense end as a three-set thriller on court two captivated the crowds. Australia’s Kaitlyn Ea and Angela Yu were up against the third seeds from New Zealand, Roanne Apalisok and Catelyn Rozario. The pair battled through the first game before losing concentration in the second. The third game was a tense affair the whole way through, with a roaring crowd turning up to cheer on the players. Ea and Yu eventually sealed the deal after 37 minutes, winning 21-12 18-21 22-20.
“We are a relatively new partnership and it’s my first time playing in this event. I’m extremely happy with that win, over three close games! I hope to keep improving and would like to get as far as I can” – Kaitlyn Ea, Australia.
All the results from day two at the VICTOR Oceania Junior Individual Championships 2019 are available on Tournament Software.
The draws for day three is now available to view on Tournament Software.
